The story is set in modern times, in a modern world. We have this character that is born with a man watching over him. Literally. Not a guardian angel, not a real person. Someone only he can see.

The 'shadowy figure' is always watching, no matter where that person goes. In elementry school, the man is standing in a corner of the classroom. In the car, the man is sitting next to the boy, or on the street watching as he passes. The figure never moves, (except to turn his head to watch), and never talks. When the boy mentions it to his parents, they think it's an imaginary friend.

When the boy is much older, in his late twenties, the man is still there, ignored but watching. Then, one day, as the mysterious figure is riding in the car next to the man, he suddenly turns to him and says 'Stop, now.' It's the first time he's ever spoken.

Yet he ends up being three minutes late to work. Why is that important? He dosen't get into trouble. His day is not unusual in the least bit. Somehow, was his life saved, by that three minute pause in his daily routine?

Maybe, maybe not. I planned on having the reader just about get bored with the whole idea.. then throw in something to stimulate them. The mysterious man, he's smiling, broadly, one day. Something else he's never done before. No words, no actions, can lead to a clue to why this is so. No internet searches reveal any 'amazing answers' to the problem as we oft see on TV.

Now, I spill in something new. How many people ever landed on the moon? There were several, wern't their? The character isn't sure, but the news keeps on talking about how only Neil Armstrong ever landed on the moon, nobody ever else has. We've never been back.

Small details, small facts, slowly petered in that the character can do nothing at all about. Changes, so minimal - and he realizes that to some small extreme, that this has been going on all his life. He'd just never been aware of it - a mailbox going from blue to orange for instance. Just assumed they'd painted it. So on and so forth.

Not dramatic things, nothing that was world altering. All the time the mysterious man is there to smile or make some action when the world changes. Sometimes, the man is frowning, for no explainable reason.

I do have an amazing ending to go with it (at least *I* think it's amazing), but I have a problem. To get to that ending I need things to be as normal as possible for as long as possible - in other words, no real progress the entire story. THAT is what has prevented me from writing it. There is no progression, or it might be better suited as a really really boring short story.. a nice idea, and WHAM! A cool ending. But utter boredom in between because the 'odd man smiling or doing something' would get old quickly.

To be totally honest with you, writing a boring story is a bad idea unless you plan to be the only one who ever reads it. What may seem like suspense to you comes across to your reader as incompetence. At least, it does when *I* run into a story that rambles on about nothing. In fact, I just chucked a book I started reading when, by page 5-6, nothing interesting had happened, just a couple of characters whining. I skimmed thru a few more pages, more whining... out the book goes. I won't pick it up again, nor do I care if the author trots out something "exciting" toward the end. It's too late. She's already lost me and won't get me back.

You have to THINK like a reader as you write. What kinds of stories do YOU like to read? Do you like boring stories? Do you trudge through a bunch of boring stuff in hopes you will find an atypical creative exciting wrap-up to the story at the end?

My personal epiphany took place when I realized books aren't vegetables... I don't need to choke down the nasty ones for my good health. I finally realized I am simply not going to live long enough to read all the great books in the world, and made a decision to quit wasting my time with the boring ones.

A good story has tension in it, right from the get-go.
Boring won't sell, nor will it win you readers.

quote:

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I planned on having the reader just about get bored with the whole idea..

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The reader can be lulled and mislead by an interesting life that the guy is living, as well as a boring life. Perhaps his everyday story can be used as a counterpoint to the main story?

According to my impression of the story so far: The reader will attach significance to the watcher's actions, no doubt about it. Those actions need to lead the reader very logically in the wrong direction, not just into confusion. Otherwise, the reader is going to feel like it wasn't a matter of losing the game, the game being the fun part of reading mysteries, but of playing a non-game and being fooled with instead of just fooled.

Some mysteries let the reader be smarter than the MC, which sets up anxiety on the part of reader on behalf of the MC. (No, no, whatever you do, don't open that door, we think, and then the idiot opens the door and scares us half to death.) The reader of your story will know, even if the MC doesn't, that something is about to happen. It won't be possible for the reader to be bored in this way, but he/she might get impatient and will rightfully expect signficance in the high points.

IMHO, anyway.
(edited after I more carefully read your posts.)

The key is that for the something-not-happening to be an event, it has to be accompanied by mental conflict and curiosity. If I sense the MC's tension, or I notice the things that I _expected_ to happen that didn't, I might not get bored at all.

But that's the point: the reader won't get "almost bored"; you'll have to amp up the tension rather than downplay it. Even then I wouldn't go on like that for too long, because you'll lose my interest.

I had written here a whole new set of ideas for the story, but as I finish the final markings on it, I decided that it was best to stop asking for advice and start putting 10 point arial on pixaled white.

I think I will start with a short story, make it sort of a series rather then a wham-bam, that was interesting, let's move on. While the stories themselves will have no individual merit and are not intended for publishing, it is to teach me how to start and *finish* a project.